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Somalia: A Symbol of the Decaying World Order

Omer Jama
December 22, 2008

The piracy off the coast of Somalia is similar to the decay in world financial and political order.

For nearly two decades, world media has described Somalia using a litany of
adjectives. Some have been accurate, others have been politically expedient
and nearly all have been uniformly negative. This nation of 10 million has
been called "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world." A "war-torn
nation" that is the "poster child of failed states." It has been dismissed
as "a basket case," accused of being "a haven for terrorists" and attacked
as "the third front in the War on Terror." More recently, it has come to be
known as the piracy capital of the world.

It came as no surprise, then, when the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) unanimously adopted resolution 1846 on December 16th, 2008,
authorizing any nation the use of "all necessary means" to combat piracy in
Somalia. To the casual observer, this resolution seems like a triumph of
international law and order. Indeed, it shows that cooperation between
nations may finally bring an end to the criminal enterprise whose victims
are not only foreign seafarers but innocent Somalis as well. Alas, closer
inspection of the resolution in light of others that came before it reveals
otherwise.

Somalia's current infamy began when a humanitarian intervention by the world
community led by the United States went terribly wrong in 1993. That
intervention was in response to UNSC resolution 774 of 1992, adopted when
the world watched in horror how a raging civil war caused the violent death
of thousands, the displacement of millions and placed nearly the entire
population of the country on the verge of starvation.

Caught in a firefight with Somali warlords who, among other criminal
activities, got rich selling donated food aid, the United States lost 18 of
its soldiers and shortly after withdrew all its forces from the country.

By 1994, Somali civilians were left to fend for themselves against warring
factions and armed criminal gangs. In the decade that followed, the UNSC
would issue more resolutions on Somalia. Yet, the more it tried, the worse
things got in Somalia, it seemed.

Meanwhile, and in violation of numerous UNSC resolutions, neighboring
countries actively armed their favorite warlords in an effort to gain a
foothold in any future Somali government. Warlords were sought and often
coveted for their brutality. Next door Ethiopia, in particular, was most
active in keeping the warlords violently engaged with one another. It was
all too happy that Somali warlords kept feeding on the civilian population
as long as it had its horse in the race.

Fast forward to Christmas Eve 2006 when Ethiopian troops poured into Somalia
and raced to Mogadishu, the bullet-ridden capital of the country.

Leading up to the invasion, the Islamic Courts, a union of local religious
groups, defeated a coalition of warlords clandestinely financed by the
United States. This ill-fated victory brought to an end a decade and a half
of lawlessness and warlord rule. But while Somalis besieged by warlords
celebrated, the Islamic Courts' victory was largely seen as a take-over by
fundamentalists ready to launch attacks on Ethiopia and may be even the
West.

Occupied with its own invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States
financed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia with military training, logistical
aid and the occasional aerial bombardment. The aim was to overthrow the
Islamic Courts and install the wildly unpopular Transitional Federal
Government. A government largely made up of the very same warlords and
criminals that fed on the population for decades.

The illegality of Ethiopia's invasion under international law aside, what
followed was the violent death of nearly 10,000 civilians and the largest
displacement of people in modern history as Mogadishu, a city of 2 million,
was nearly emptied of its residents. And today, as in 1993, Somalia is yet
again on the verge of a massive famine.

Ethiopia, for its part, has benefited enormously from the War on Terror. A
poor nation by any standard, it is ruled with an iron fist by a dictator
whose abysmal record on human rights places him in a special category even
among African dictators.

Flush now with cash and military aid, Ethiopia not only has the muscle to
violently suppress dissent within its borders, it also has the means and,
more importantly, the political cover to commit its widely documented war
crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity.

Among the most flagrant of these unlawful acts are the repeated and wanton
bombardments of civilian populated areas in Somalia and its own Ogaden
region. And despite its brazen violation of human rights, Ethiopia continues
to receive financial, military and political aid from the West.

Which brings us back to UNSC resolution 1846. The United Nations Secretary
General only a few days ago said that Somalia's problems were beyond the
capabilities of United Nations peace keepers and that no volunteers had been
found for a coalition. Yet, the UNSC unanimously approved resolution 1846
virtually authorizing any nation to fight pirates in Somalia, even on land.

Never mind that piracy is a direct consequence of lawlessness in Somalia
that was ignored or actively agitated for decades, the UNSC and the
international community at large wish now to cure the symptom rather than
the disease.

The piracy off the coast of Somalia is similar to the decay in world
financial and political order. All require remedies to their root causes and
not band aid solutions.